Mail-handling apparatus.



J. H. BUCHANAN.

Patented Feb. 21, 1911.

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J. H. BUGHANAN. MAIL HANDLING APPARATUS. APPLIOATIQN FILED 001224, 1910.

Patented B61121, 1911.

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JOHN H. BUCHANAN, OF ASHLEY, PENNSYLVANIA,

MAIL-HANDLING APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed October 24, 1910.

Patented Feb. 21, 1911. Serial No. 588,819.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JOHN H. BUCHANAN, citizen of the United States, residing at Ashley, in the county of Luzerne and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Mail-Handling Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

This invention comprehends certain new and useful improvements in apparatus for t 'ansferring mail to and from a moving train, and the invention has for its primary object a simple, durable and efficient con-n struction of mail handling mechanism, the parts of which are so arranged that they may be cheaply manufactured and easily assembled and installed without materially altering the railway mail coach or the cranes alongside of the track, the device being positive and practically automatic in its action to receive the mail bag from a crane and to subsequently swing the bag into the car where it may be removed from the receiving arm, the parts being also so arranged that the apparatus may handle light and heavy bags with equal facility and positiveness, the liability of the bag rebounding from the receiving arms of the car and crane, after having been caught by the same, being avoided.

Vith this and other objects in view as will more fully appear as the description proceeds, the invention consists in certam constructions, arrangements and combinations of the parts that I shall hereinafter fully describe and claim.

For a full understanding of the invention, reference is to be had to the followingdescription and accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of my improved mail handling apparatus; Fig. 2 is a transverse sectional view of the car mech anism, the main parts being shown in elevation; Fig. 8 is a perspective view illustrating the stripper of the crane in the act of removing a bag from the delivering'arm of the car mechanism; and, Fig. 4; is a fragmentary perspective view illustrating par ticularly the detent for controlling the bag receiving arm of the car and the latch and releasing lever co-acting therewith.

Corresponding and like parts are referred to in the following description and indicated in all the views of the drawings by the same reference characters.

That portion of my improved mail han- I I rod 2, although it is to be understood that i the rod 2 as a distinct support may be done away with and the sleeve be a shaft or the like journaled at its ends in the side bars of the supporting frame 1.

A bag receiving arm 4 is secured to the sleeve 3 at one end of the latter, the arm extending perpendicularly from the sleeve and being provided at its rear end with a laterally projecting forked stripper 5. At the opposite end of the sleeve 3, a detent disk 6 is secured, said disk being formed with a slot 7 and two shoulders, designated 8 and 9, separated from each other and from the slot 7, the slot and shoulders being designed for engagement by a latch 10. The latch 10 is movable upwardly and outwardly in a guide slot 11 formed in one of the side bars of the frame 1 and is secured to an actuating lever 12 which is formed in any desired way on the frame and which is moved upwardly and outwardly by means of a spring 13. the spring being connected at one end to the actuating lever and at its other end to a hook 14 or the like secured to the supporting frame 1. The normal tension of the spring is to move the lever in a direction to carry the latch 10 toward the detent disk 6 so that the latch will spring into the slot 7 or against either one of the shoulders S or 9 .The outward or downward. movement of the latch 10 is limited by a stop l2 secured to or forming part of one side bar of the supporting frame 1, as clearly illustrated in the drawings.

15 designates the bag delivering arm for the car. This arm 15 is pivotally mounted at one end in a bearing 16 on the base of the frame 1, so as to swing outwardly and downwardly or inwardly and upwardly in a plane at right angles to the plane of the door-way in which the apparatus is mount ed. The delivering arm 15 is locked in its upper inoperative position Within the door way by means of a foot operated latch 17 engaging a detent formed in the arm, and a spring 18 is secured to a'hook carried by the supporting frame and arm 15, respectively, the sprmg being contractile and exerting its tension to move the arm to its inoperative tion of a suspension bar 22 which is secured to one end of a chain 23, the chain being provided with a hook or shackle 24 by which it may be securely fastened around a mail bag.v hen the arm 15 has the bag suspended from it by placing the suspension bar22 in the recesses of the frictionallymovable and pivoted bag holders 20, the chain is passed over the pin 21, as illustrated in Fig. 2, so as to prevent any accidental dislodgementof the suspension bar as the arm is moved outwardly and downwardly to a substantially horizontal position ready to havethe bag stripped therefrom. It is to be understood that the weight of the bag is sufiic'ient to overcome the tension of the spring 18, sov that after the bag has been suspended from the arm and the latch 17 released, the arm 15 will swing outwardly and downwardly and be supported 111 its a operative position projecting out from the car.

The crane 25, which is designed to be placed along the track to cooperate with the mail handling mechanisms of the car, may embody any desired form of base and standard and is provided with a substantially horizontally extending receiving arm 26 which is formed or provided at its outer end with a forked stripper 27 projecting preferably at right angles thereto. The crane is also provided, above and spaced from the receiving arm 26, with a substantially horizontal delivering arm 28, said last named arm being formed with upwardly pro ecting spaced finger-s29 formed with recesses in their upper endsfor engagement with the cross bar of a bag suspending chain.

It is to. be understood that care must be taken in adjusting the chain around the bag so that the chain will not be long enough to permit the bag to rebound and swing backwardly and upwardly entirely above the forked strippers, which manifestly would permit the bag to drop.

It is to be particularly noted that each of I the strippers is formed at the base of its forked members-with a rearwardly facing shoulder 30, the strippers being off-set for this purpose, whereby when they strip bags from their supports by passing underneath the suspension bars 22, the suspension bars Wlll' slide rearwardly 1n the forks and come to lodgment back of the shoulders where they will be prevented from dislodgment by any rebound of the bag, thus the bags will be securely caught and all danger of dropping the bag will be avoided.

From the foregoing description in connection with the accompanying drawings, the operation of my improved mail bag handling apparatus will be apparent. In the practical use of the device, it is to be understood that the receiving arm -ft of the tar apparatus will. be normally held substantially within the door-way in an upper position, as best illustrated in Fig. 2, by the engagement of the latch 10 in the slot 7 of the detent disk (5, thus preventing the arm from moving either way. In order to set the receiving arm t, it is only necessary for the operator within the car to release the latch 10 from the detent disk 6, by manipulating the hand lever 12, whereupon the arm l will swing outwardly until it reaches a "horizontal position, at which time the latch 10, having been released, will be engaged by the shoulder S and the arm will be securely held in its operative position ready to strip a bag from the crane. As the train approaches the crane, the forked stripper 5 will pass in between the recessed fingers 29 of the crane delivery arm 28 and engage the chain of the bag which is suspended from the arm 28, the suspension cross bar of said bag being stripped from the fingers 29 by the forked stripper 5 and the cross bar sliding rearwardly over the forked members until it lodges back of the off-set or shoulder 30, the bag beingsecurely held on the receiving arm 4 and being subsequently swung into the car, merely by the operator releasing the latch 10 from the detent disk 6, whereupon the weight of the bag will swing the arm atinwardly sufiiciently far for the latch 10 toengage the other shoulder 9, the arm being thereby prevented from swinging outwardly again until it is desired that it shall do so, and holding the bag in convenient position for its removal.

In the operation of delivering a bag from the car, the suspension bar 22 of a chain secured around a. mail bag is, as before stated, placed in the recessed bag holders 20 and the foot operated'latch 17 is released to permit the weight of the bag to swing the arm 15 outwardly and downwardly to its operative position, projecting in a substantially horizontal direction out of the door-way of the car. Then as the train approaches the crane,

as before stated, the stripper 27 of the crane will strip the bag from the delivery arm 15 just in the same manner as has been previously described with reference to the stripping of the bag from the arm 28, the holders 20 being free to move or tilt, so as to permit the bag to be easily stripped from the arm 15, while at the same time said holders are 

